Morning sickness had worsened with my seventh international flight in just three months. As the private jet landed on the military airstrip in Rio de Janeiro, I clutched a vomit bag and dry-heaved, cold sweat dampening my forehead.
"Are you alright?" Zhou Yuchen asked, gently patting my back and handing me a cup of warm water. "The doctor said frequent time zone changes aren't ideal during pregnancy."
I took a sip, trying to calm the queasiness. "Compared to those imprisoned children, this is nothing."
Outside the cabin window, Morris was already waiting with a squad of Brazilian federal police. Ever since we confirmed that Polaris operated a covert lab in the Amazon rainforest, the rescue mission had entered its final countdown.
"According to intel from Rafael and thermal satellite scans, the lab is located here." Morris spread a topographical map across the SUV's back seat, pointing to a red-marked zone deep within the jungle. "But there's a problem—some kind of energy field surrounds the entire area. All electronics malfunction within proximity."
I rested my hand on my gently rounded belly. Little Xingche stirred, more agitated than usual. Ever since I entered my fifth month, the psychic bond between mother and child had only grown stronger. At that moment, I could feel him trying to warn me.
"Any reaction from the crystal orchid?" Zhou Yuchen asked. We kept a small one with us in a temperature-controlled case for energy sensing.
I opened the box—and inhaled sharply. The orchid's once-blue petals had turned a foreboding crimson, and in its stamen shimmered a blurry vision: a woman in white, standing before a glass chamber, a syringe in hand.
"Dr. Bai..." Morris muttered grimly. "Real name: Bai Yunshuang. Head of Polaris. She collaborated with your mother twenty years ago."
My heart dropped. Mother had never mentioned that name. But the crimson deepening in the petals confirmed it—the orchid's warning was real, its color darkening as if bleeding.
We left the vehicles at the forest edge. The rest of the journey had to be on foot. The oppressive heat and humming insects of the Amazon wrapped around us. I walked in the middle of the team, Zhou Yuchen leading ahead, Morris guarding the rear.
"Signal's becoming unstable," the technician warned, staring at his handheld scanner. "Five hundred meters to target, but—"
He paused. Through the trees ahead, a faint silhouette appeared—a metallic structure that seemed oddly... distorted, like a mirage flickering in rising heat.
"The energy field must be warping the space itself," Professor Lin said through our earpieces. "You'll need to deactivate the source to enter safely."
Suddenly, Xingche kicked so hard I doubled over from the pain. At that exact moment, the crystal orchid burst out of its container and hovered mid-air.
"Sophia!" Zhou Yuchen reached to pull me back, but he was too late. The orchid shot toward the warped building like a beacon, and I—like a puppet on invisible strings—was pulled forward.
"Follow her!" Morris shouted to the stunned team. "She can pass through the field!"
The moment I breached the distortion, the world spun violently. My eardrums felt like they'd been stabbed, and flashes of broken images stormed my mind—my mother's youthful face, a cold-eyed stranger's smirk... and a girl I somehow knew was my daughter, grown.
When the dizziness cleared, I was standing before the lab's entrance. The crystal orchid embedded itself in a biometric panel, pulsing blue. With a soft hiss, the metal doors slid open. Zhou Yuchen and Morris arrived moments later, breathless, just in time to see—
More than twenty glass chambers arranged in a circle, each containing a child no older than ten. They floated, connected to tubes, with flecks of blue gravel suspended above their heads. Each bore a sapphire lotus mark behind their ears. At the central console, a woman in white turned to face us.
"Su Lan's daughter," she said coolly. Her eyes narrowed, voice sharp as glass. "I should've known the Stone of Destiny would choose you."
"Bai Yunshuang," I hissed through clenched teeth. Instantly, the energy from Xingche surged through me, illuminating my skin with a faint, blue glow.
She looked no older than forty, doll-faced but with eyes void of humanity. As she stepped toward me, lights in the lab flickered, sending waves of pain through our skulls from a surging energy pulse.
"Your mother stole my research," she said, her voice reverberating unnaturally. "Now it's time I took back what's mine."
Suddenly, she slammed a red button. The children screamed in unison. The blue gravel vibrated violently, emitting a blinding light. I shielded my belly, but the crystal orchid flew to the nearest chamber, its petals spreading over the glass to form a glowing shield.
"Move in!" Morris barked. The commandos split up—half to secure the lab, the others to extract the children.
Zhou Yuchen rushed to the console but was thrown back by an invisible force. Bai Yunshuang lifted a remote. "One step closer," she said, "and their brains fry."
Despite the pain, I stood tall. "What do you want?"
"The child in your womb." Her eyes gleamed like a serpent's, fixed on my belly. "A flawless energy vessel—capable of withstanding the full resonance of the Stone of Destiny."
Xingche responded violently, surging with a blinding energy that flowed from my core to my limbs. My fingertips began to glow.
"So he's awakened," Bai Yunshuang murmured, awestruck. "Perfect. Saves me the trouble of raising him."
She pressed the button again—this time, all the gravel discharged bolts of blue light, forming a net of energy aimed at me. At the last second, Zhou Yuchen dove in front of me, and the crystal orchid detonated mid-air, scattering its petals into thousands of blue light particles, neutralizing most of the blast.
The remaining shockwave slammed us to the ground. Bai Yunshuang retreated toward the emergency exit, shouting over the chaos: "This is just the beginning."
She pressed one final button, and the entire lab began to quake violently.
"Evacuate the children!" Morris roared. "This place is coming down!"
In the chaos, commandos shattered glass chambers and carried out unconscious children. Zhou Yuchen and two others held the rear. I helped medical staff stabilize the weakest ones.
From a safe distance, we watched the laboratory erupt into flames, consumed by cascading explosions. As survivors were counted, Morris's face darkened.
"Three children are missing. She relocated them beforehand."
Back at the field medical camp, the rescued children began waking. The first thing each did—regardless of their native language—was point to my abdomen and say the same word: "Guardian."
"They recognize Xingche," Morris murmured. "There's some kind of psychic connection between them."
Late that night, as calm returned to the camp, Zhou Yuchen and I reviewed everything with Morris.
"Bai Yunshuang is far more dangerous than we expected." He opened a classified file. "She was the chief scientist on Project Destiny, worked alongside your mother and Yuchen's. Twenty years ago, she vanished after a so-called accident. But now we know—it wasn't an accident."
In the photo, three young women stood smiling in a lab. I immediately recognized my mother and Zhou's. The woman in the center, wearing glasses, was a younger Bai Yunshuang.
"Why did she betray them?" Zhou Yuchen asked.
"Power," Morris said flatly. "With proper guidance, the Stone of Destiny can cure disease, even prolong life. But Bai wanted more—control over human consciousness. Absolute domination."
I touched my stomach. Xingche stirred faintly, calmer now.
"So that's why she wants the 'Stone Child'... an energy medium for her twisted goals."
"And your child might be the most compatible vessel ever born," Morris said gravely. "She won't stop until she has him."
On the flight home, I leaned against Zhou Yuchen's shoulder, exhaustion settling deep in my bones. The orchid was gone, but we'd saved its pollen and rootstock—Professor Lin might be able to cultivate a new one. More importantly, twenty-three "stone children" were rescued, and the marks behind their ears had already begun to fade.
"I've been thinking about what Bai said," Zhou Yuchen murmured. "She called Xingche the 'Guardian.'"
"And the children recognized him," I replied, completing his thought. "Just like the Stone of Destiny chooses a bloodline… maybe Xingche was chosen to protect them all."
As the plane ascended above the clouds, golden sunlight poured in. In its warmth, I saw it—countless flecks of blue light, drifting like sparks through the sky.
And deep down, I knew.
The fire had just begun.